Hi again. In this episode we are going to address what is the secret to achieving
abundance. And I'm going to share with you some of the most incredible secrets that
I have learned working with people for 45 years who have a lot of money. Some of
them are even billionaires but they're not the happiest people in the world.
They don't really have what I call abundance or true or authentic wealth. So
I'm going to frame this with you in what we call 3 dimensions of true or
authentic wealth to help you understand what abundance really means. And how you
can teach your children and grandchildren about what life is really
all about, it's not just about the money.
So, I'm Doug Andrew. And I've helped a lot of people optimize their assets for more
than 45 years. Many times as I travel because I speak many times a year all
over the country. And I will be on an airplane and snoozing. And when the pilot
or flight attendant comes over the intercom and says, "Hey, we're approaching
put your seat in that most upright uncomfortable position." You know, you wake
up and the person next to you wakes up and we usually introduce ourselves for
the first time after flying from Chicago or New York back to the west coast. And
they'll say, "So what do you do?" And I'll pull out a Delta Airlines napkin and
I'll draw a great big A on the napkin like this, which stands for abundance. And
I'll say, "Well, I help people optimize assets." And then I say, "When we say that
word assets, what kinds of things do most people think of first? when we say the
word assets." I let them talk and they'll usually share with me, "Well, your house
your cash, your stocks, your bonds or real estate and so forth." I say, "Yep, those are
financial assets but those are just really material possessions, aren't they?"
They're just things but we put these under the financial dimension but that's
what most people think of first when I say that word assets. Let me rephrase it
with this tonality, "What are the most important assets that you value, that you
cherish, that you possess on this earth?" Now, they know I'm not talking about
money. And so the first response I get is family, you know the relationships. The
next might be health. We appreciate good health in our family my wife is
technically died 3 times and come back,
we appreciate good health. The third answer I get is values, your beliefs, your
faith. These kinds of assets involve people so we call these human assets.
They are our core assets so I put these under the foundational assets for
abundant living. They would also include your well-being, spirituality, talents,
future heritage, character, frames, writable foundations and so forth.
There's a third dimension of authentic wealth that involves the wisdom that we
gain throughout our life and that's our intellectual assets. Now, wisdom is a
product of knowledge, times experiences. And not just the good
ones, I've actually learned more from my bad experiences in life that gives us
our wisdom. But also would include your formal education, reputation, systems
methods, traditions, alliances, ideas and skills. Now these are the 3
dimensions of authentic wealth. Now, it's interesting there is a fourth category
of assets that for most intents and purposes people flat-out give up choice
and control. So, let me take a side trip and explain what that one is and why
people get off-track when we talk about this because this one actually
transcends all 3 dimensions. So, most governmental systems in the world have a
method whereby we must give back to society. And that normally comes in the
form of taxes, these are our Civic or social assets. And most of the time
government's will just tax people, now that's okay, I'm a red-blooded American, I
think we should all pay our fair share of tax. But in actuality we can give our
time and our talents to the causes we believe in and have more impact than
just riding out bigger and bigger checks to the government in taxes. I have seen
this over and over again. I serve on a volunteer basis for teenage suicide
prevention. I also help out at the crisis center with these suicidal teenagers. My
wife works at the Christmas box with the little children that are in protective
custody because they've been in abusive homes. And when we do that,
I have 42 volunteers that help me and some of these volunteers command over a
$100,000 an hour as consultants in corporate America. But
they will turn down opportunities to go out and make a 100 to 200
thousand dollars to come and devote time to 12 or 15 or 20 teenagers
that have attempted suicide there, they've been cutting and so forth.
Because the impact of time with those teenagers sometimes is greater than if
they wrote out a check for a million dollars. They... Several of them could do
that, they could just write out a check for a million dollar and say, "Let
the counselors deal with these kids." Well, even the counselors say, "We
accomplished more in 1 hour than they do in 3 weeks
counseling. Because they know what the teenagers have done, they know what
they're thinking and so forth. But we walk in and we're non-judgmental, we're
not allowed to know what their hang-ups are or if they have drug addictions or
or other addictions. We just simply want to lift them up. So, I've turned down
opportunities to speak for Tony Robbins. I've spoken for Tony Robbins 2 or
3 times. But I know I could go down there and make a quarter of a million
dollars at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas at one of his events. But instead
sometimes I've chosen to be in front of a dozen teenagers because the impact is
greater than just making more money. So, that's what I mean by giving your time
and your talents. But in the government system we have taxes, now taxes are
actually an asset. When I talk about that... That's the title of chapter 2 of my
second book called "Missed Fortune 101" that became a national bestseller, we went
through a half million copies of that. What I mean by that is... when I fly to
California I get to drive on Interstate 10 or the I-5 because I help pay for
those freeways. Now we may not agree with how the government is a steward over
certain public assets and how they may waste our tax dollars, let's not go there
right now. But see, we all own those freeways. So, what we want to do is make
sure that we optimize the taxes we pay. But many times we can redirect otherwise
payable taxes to causes we support by taking ownership. Now, the key to American
wealth has always been in ownership, deeds, titles, articles of incorporation.
Countries who do not allow their citizens to own like North Korea... I lived
in South Korea for 2 years and it's vibrant dynamic they're booming. North
Korea is starving to death and they have to act like they have to blackmail the
world, "We're going to make nuclear weapons if you don't give us aid. And so it's
really not about - making nuclear weapons, it's about the blackmail that
they've gotten away with for 3 generations.
"Oh, we're going to make nuclear warheads if you don't give us help." Well, when my
friend went to North Korea and saw that they were starving to death, it's because
they don't own anything. He would go into the fields and they'd say...
They'd look like a hurricane hit him and they say, "We don't own anything over here."
But many times he was only allowed to go into certain areas of North Korea or
down certain roads where they were threatened with their lives if they did
not make that rice field or that corn field look great. But five rows into the
cornfield the rest of it looked like it was hit by a hurricane. It's really the
difference if you've ever seen that picture from outer space of the Korean
Peninsula. North Korea is dark with one light at
nighttime emitting from the presidential compound versus South Korea is lit up
like Las Vegas or Los Angeles. Light, dark, ownership, non ownership. And so ownership
is what allows people to redirect otherwise payable taxes to causes they
support. So, that's what I mean by this. So, for example when you take ownership in a
home you'll take better care of it than if you rent one. In America we
incentivize people to own a home, the cheapest money I can obtain is to buy a
home. I can pay 3, 4, 4 and a half percent interest on that mortgage
and I can deduct it. Because it's an incentive and we have a higher standard
of living because we own property in this country. So, when I borrow money at
4 and a half percent to buy a home, it's only a net cost of 3 percent
because I'm able to tax deducted and so I save a third of that in otherwise
payable tax. If I take ownership for my own retirement instead of relying on the
government to provide it for me. There are good ways, IRA's, 401K's
There are better ways, Roth's, and I can prove to you a Roth is
probably 33% better than a traditional IRA or 401k if you think taxes are going to
be higher in the future because of irresponsible government spending and
the printing of money. But I don't own an IRA or 401k or a Roth, never have, never
will. My favorite vehicle is what I call the
LASER fund and it allows me to accumulate access and transfer my money
tax-free. And people say, "Oh, when the IRS finds out that one, they'll close that
loophole." No, it's because I'm taking total ownership, whether I die sooner or
later. Whether I leave behind my sweetheart earlier or later or my kids,
they will never be a drain on society. I have to take
care of that, I insure myself. I make sure my money grows tax-free and why is it
tax-free? Because I'm taking ownership for my future, I don't need Social
Security benefits. I can do way better than the government. But see when people
choose not to take ownership the government always tries to do it for
them and they're not very good at it. In fact, I think they're pretty lousy at it.
But the key here is to be able to understand how to redirect otherwise
payable taxes to causes that you support. That's why I teach people how to take
ownership not only of the financial dimension but also here and here and set
up what I call a family bank. And this is where true abundance comes from, this is
like a 3-legged stool. And sometimes people are just focused on money lending
money. And they're wobbling on just finances maybe at the expense of their
health or their relationships with their kids or grandkids or their God. So, people
come to us to take the wobble out of their life and be balanced in these
3 dimensions. And then they begin to experience abundance and then they teach
this to their kids and grandkids and abundance breeds abundance and it's an
incredible way to live. And that's what I want for you. So, if this message is
resonating with you and you want to gain more balance to have abundance in your
own life and focus on the three dimensions of what I call authentic
wealth. I would encourage you to watch several other educational videos and
episodes where I talk about this and I explain the difference between the
Vanderbilts and the Rothschilds. If you simply want to read and learn about this,
I wrote a book called "Entitlement Abolition". And I would love to give you
absolutely free a copy of this book, it's about 200 pages comprised of 12
chapters. The first four chapters talk about how we get in these traps of
entitlement and the last 8 chapters talk about how to break free from that
trap and enjoy abundance. And abundance breeds abundance, and it's an incredible
way to live. If you go to Entitlement AbolitionBook.com,
you just pay a nominal and shipping and handling fee and I will fire out a copy
of this free. And there's some other curriculum in there, you can choose if
you want to dive deeper. I've actually done a master class on this where I do a
deep dive for 18 hours. But each chapter is like a 15 or 20 minute read. This will
help empower you to enjoy abundance in your life and that's my hope for you. I
do this for people like you who are seeking to experience the abundance in
life that I think our Creator wants for every one of us. And I would like it in
the greatest portion for you too.